


Survival

by raelee514



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Lance Pidge and Hunk Grumbling At Each Other, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:43:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8353810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raelee514/pseuds/raelee514
Summary: Lance, Hunk and Pidge are woken before the crack of dawn and told to survive a survival course.  Everyone expects them to come in last.  Even them.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [duckering](https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckering/gifts).



**Lance**

It’s already a disaster Lance thinks.

His classmates are all lined up in a well organized line. Teams of three, standing at attention, listening to Iverson as he explains that they are about to run an survival obstacle course. One designed to mimic being in unknown and hostile territory. Every instructor is on hand and they all look serious and focused. This is a big deal, this is going to go toward their graduating, toward them actually becoming Garrison officers. 

Lance’s throat feels tight, if he doesn’t pass this he might flunk out. He looks to his side at Hunk, who showed up three minutes after everyone else, his uniform undone and his boots in his arms. He watches as Hunk finally buttons himself up fully. Lance lets out a frustrated sigh looks down at his own wrinkled uniform because though it’d been on the floor, it’d been his cleanest. 

Harding, his roommate snickers at him and Lance notices he’s wearing his own pristine uniform, standing in front of his teammates. The top engineer and the top communications officer in the program. “Where is the rest of your team, McClain?” 

Lance sighs and looks at Hunk again. Hunk shrugs, he has no more clue than Lance about where ever the hell Pidge is. Pidge is a mystery to Lance, every time he tries to get to know him, he’s blown off. Only sees him during classes and simulations. They have no rapport otherwise. 

“You do not want to come in last,” Iverson is repeating. 

Lance closes his eyes. 

“See you next month, McClain,” Harding laughs.

“Oh that’s giving them too much credit,” someone else laughs. “See you all next year.”

More people laugh and snicker and Lance realizes everyone is walking forward and grabbing duffle bags. He hears other voices directed his way… 

“Where is their communications officer.”

“Did Garrett put his shirt on inside out?”

“They’ll never finish.”

Lance glances at Hunk, Hunk’s looking down at his shirt and it is on inside out. Hunk sighs and starts unbuttoning it. Lance groans and steps up to the last two duffle bags but Iverson steps in front of him blocking him.

“Where is Cadet Gunderson?”

“I don’t know, sir,” Lance admits.

“Are you the team leader, McClain?”

“Yes?”

“Are you asking me?”

“No, sir, yes I am the leader.”

Iverson gets into his face. “Are you sure on that, you seem to be doing a piss poor job of leading a cohesive unit. Late arrival and a no show…” Iverson glances at Hunk.

“I apologize, sir,” Hunk says, saluting quickly but leaving his shirt half unbutton.

“Get dressed, Garrett.”

“Yes, sir,” Hunk says and goes back to it.

“You are already on the clock, McClain. Finding your missing team member is now your first obstacle. You will not be given extra time, so you better hustle. You cannot collect your items until after you find Gunderson. Is all that understood.”

“Yes, sir,” Lance says and salutes.

“THEN GO GO GO.”

Lance grabs Hunk’s arm, turns and starts running back into the barracks

“Uh, where are we going?” Hunk asks.

“His room, I guess…” Lance falters. “Uh, which room is his?”

“He’s got a single… uh…” 

“We’re screwed,” Lance moans coming to a full stop in the hallway.

Hunk blows past him before stopping to and turning around. “I think his room number is 4213.”

“Let’s check it out, then I don’t know…. Guess something else from there.”

“We’re going to fail.”

“No we’re not,” Lance says.

“Sure we are,” Hunk says.

“No we’re not, we’re going to run the whole course and we’re going to reach the finish line.”

“We don’t even know where to look for Pidge. We haven’t even started.”

“We’ll find him and that kind of defeatist attitude will just well get us defeated.”

“Have you seen us, we are defeated.”

It’s already a disaster, Lance thinks but he ignores Hunk and keeps hurrying toward the room Hunk thinks belongs to Pidge. They get to the door and it’s wide open, like most of the doors because they’d been pounded on and opened by the instructors less than ten minutes earlier. 

It wasn’t even four in the morning, the sirens had been wailing but those stopped and Lance wonders if Pidge heard them, did he ignore them, he should know that they meant they’re was a drill. He sighs and realizes he really does know squat about his third team member. 

“He’s messy,” Hunk remarks.

Lance steps into the room and nods. Clothes are everywhere, as well as papers and electronics. Lance bends down and picks up a piece of paper and tilts his head at it… “Kerberos mission statement?”

“What. Are. You. Doing. In. My. Room!” 

Hunk squawks and Lance spins around and finds himself looking down at his communications officer and into a very furious stormy expression. 

“What are you doing,” Pidge yells.

“What…” Lance sputters, anger rising. “Did you not hear the sirens?”

“So, there was a fire drill or whatever…why are you in my room?”

“No, there was a drill to get us outside to give us an assignment and you’ve made ours harder by not being present. So why weren’t you out there with us?”

“None of your business.”

“None of my… I’m the team leader.”

“Sure you are.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Whatever, what’s the assignment?”

Lance blows out a stream of air. “Just follow us, come on Hunk.” He watches Pidge hoist his backpack onto his shoulder and pushes down any curiosity over where he was because he just doesn’t have time to deal with that bull right now. 

Once they’re back outside Lance hurries toward the duffle bags, but Iverson is blocking him again. He looks up at his instructor and wait for whatever lecture that is about to come this time.

“Gunderson, you can’t bring your backpack, only tools you’re allowed are in the duffle bags.”

“What but..”

“No buts hand them over.”

“No,” Pidge snaps. 

“What was that?”

“These are my things.”

“You’re things are the Academy’s things.”

“No…”

Lance grabs Pidge and shoves him behind him, but not before grabbing the back pack and giving him a hard glare, hoping he understood the silent shut up. 

“Here, sir… that’s what he meant say. He’s just not awake sir, sleeps like the dead — something he’ll need to work on in the future so he doesn’t miss the drill sirens.” 

Iverson takes the backpack and eyes Lance.

“See that he does, Cadet.”

“Yes, sir,” Lance says. 

He grabs the duffle bags, and throws one at Hunk, Pidge is glaring at him and muttering under his breath, but Lance ignores that and starts off in the direction everyone else did. He is trying to calm down, but he really doesn’t have the time too because they’re already at least twenty minutes behind and they haven’t even read the instructions yet. 

It’s already a huge disaster. 

“What was that?” Pidge yells once they’re out of ear shot.

“Me saving your ass.”

“You mean your ass.”

Lance groans. “Same difference, we’re a team.”

“No, we’re assigned together,” Pidge mutters. 

“What was that?”

“We aren’t a team.” 

“Yes we are.”

“Saying it doesn’t make it true.”

Lance sputters. “Look, we have a survival course to… SURVIVE. And I’m in charge, so YOU better listen…” he looks at Hunk. “That means you too.”

“What did I do?”

“You were inside out,” Lance mutters and he sees the piece of paper on one of the bags and grabs it. “We need to get started…” he skim reads the piece of paper then takes a deep breathe and starts reading it out loud to his so-called-team. 

It’s a walk is really what it is, but it’s not a simple one of course. They have to reach a certain destination, and then there will be obstacle for them to deal with. Walking right into more disaster, lance thinks with a wince. 

“We should take an inventory,” Hunk suggests.

Lance nods his agreement. “You and I will do this duffle, Pidge you do the other.”

Pidge glares at him but turns to open the second bag. 

Lance lets a small sound of relief and he tries not to count the minutes as they do their inventory. Food rations, binoculars, a compass, walkie-talkies, blasters with dummy rounds, climbing gear, first aid kit, and a toolbox. He hands Hunk and Pidge a blaster and walkie talkie. Puts the binoculars around his neck and takes the compass. 

“We’re supposed to walk east for about five miles and we’re already behind so let’s be fast about it…” he stalks off towards the rising sun, without looking back at his team members.

~

**Pidge**

Pidge walks with Lance and Hunk. She’s not happy, Iverson has her equipment. She should be on the roof, she should be listening to the alien chatter. She needs to find her family. But once again she’s stuck playing wannabe space explorer.

She doesn’t give a damn. 

“So, Pidge, where were you?” Lance asks suddenly.

She grits her teeth. 

“I mean did you even hear the sirens?”

“I heard them. Thought it was a drill.”

“Kinda was… I mean outside, get assignment. Where were you?”

“None of your business.”

“Kinda is,” Lance says. 

Pidge decides to ignore him. 

“I mean we’re on the same team and you never talk with us… and well…”

Shut up, Lance, Pidge thinks and she looks to the sky. She thinks about her family and why she is here and squares her shoulders. It’s just until she figures out what happened, it’s just until she finds away to go after them.

“Are you listening to me?” Lance shouts.

“No.”

Suddenly Lance is front of her, glowering down his eyes narrowed and his face tense. “I am the team leader.”

“And blah blah blah team bonding,” Pidge says.

Hunk starts laughing from the side.

“It’s not funny,” Lance yells. “It’s important. We’re a team, we get scored as a team and I don’t want to be kicked out… I can’t… I’m not Mullet Guy, I’m getting kicked out. I’m finally in the combat pilot program, I’m not flunking out.”

It matters to him, Pidge thinks. Being a space explorer. It matters to him. 

“Fine,” she says. 

“Fine what?”

“We can bond, or whatever.”

“Yeah?” Lance smiles all wide and toothy and sincere. It makes her uncomfortable. 

“So where were you?”

She sighs and scrambles for a lie. 

“I needed some air, just went for a walk, felt like the walls were closing in.”

“Yeah…” Lance nods and he looks around them. The sun still rising and them walking right towards it. “It’s good to be outside, huh, even if we’re in the middle of no where with no idea what we’re doing and about fifteen minutes behind the rest of the class…”

Pidge manages not to roll her eyes. It’s a given they’ll come in last. But she supposes they could try not too. “We can catch up, come on, how many more miles we got.”

“Pretty much all of them, we haven’t been walking that long — hey Hunk, get the water bottles out of the bag. We should stay hydrated.”

“Can we eat?” Hunk asks and Pidge grins at the inevitability of that question. 

“No. Not yet. We can break when we hit the five mile point.”

“Yeah, okay…” Hunk passes out water bottles.

“We should take turns asking questions, getting to know each other. I’ll go first. Pidge where you come from?”

“Earth.”

“Does he always have to be a snarky?” Lance asks Hunk.

“I think so.” Hunk shrugs.

Pidge rolls her eyes. “I’m from Ohio.”

“Really? Miami and Hunk’s from San Francisco.”

Pidge nods because she doesn’t care.

“Brothers or sisters?”

“A brother,” she inhales sharply. 

“Older? I have an older brother, Tony, he’s pretty good pilot. I’m better, though.”

Pidge thinks Lance’s brother can’t possibly be a good pilot if that is true but she doesn’t say anything. 

“Hunk you have brothers right?”

“Yeah, all older. None of them are cool.”

“What’s your brother like, Pidge?”

Always there, Pidge thinks. Matt was always there for her. “He’s okay,” she lies. He is better than okay, he better be okay, she bits her lip. “Would…Iverson won’t go through my stuff will he?” 

“Uh, I doubt it… why?” Lance says.

“Why?” Hunk asks.

And she realizes she made a mistake they both looking at her oddly, expectantly, because she’s made them think she has something of interest in her bags. She shakes her head. “It’s just computers and stuff, but has private stuff on it?”

“Porn?” Lance asks.

“Lance,” Hunk exclaims.

“NO.”

“Not into girls?” Lance asks.

“Not into anyone,” Pidge retorts. “Just private programs and stuff.”

“Iverson is not gonna care about a laptop.”

“More than that,” Pidge mumbles under her breath.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“My sister is into computers and stuff.. Not sure what she does exactly. I have two, Marianna is all around dresses and her friends, but Charlotte she’s into computers and books and things. Got sisters?”

“No.”

“Just the brothers.”

“What do you do for fun, Pidge?” Lance asks. 

“Work on my computer..why am I getting all the dumb questions?”

“Because I know Hunk, we actually talk.”

“Maybe I’m just not a talker.”

“Well that lasted all of five minutes,” Lance breathed out annoyed. 

“It’s an improvement on last time,” Hunk says. 

Pidge just glowers at their backs and falls a few more steps behind them. This isn’t what she should be doing, this is wasting her time, this is all wasting her time.

~

**Hunk**

“I’m hot.” Hunk wipes at the back of his neck, then adjusts the bandana he has wrapped around his forehead. “Why we have to walk so far?”

“We’re almost there, I think,” Lance says. 

Hunk groans. “I’m hungry.”

“Not until we get where we’re going,” Lance says.

“How will we know?” Pidge gripes.

“I’ve got my step counter, I’m counting the miles and there is supposed to be a clue or directions or something. Markers to show us we’re on the right track.”

Hunk shakes his head and feels sweat leave his skin for he air. He takes a deep breath, he feels out of breath and he’s tired. “I hate walking.”

“You hate anything that isn’t eating, this is good for us.”

Hunk looks back at Pidge who looks a bit peaked himself and shakes his head. “Just cause you’re in good shape.”

“It pays to keep in shape,” Lance says and looks back at both of them. Then he stops walking so suddenly, Hunk walks right into him and knocks him onto his ass. 

Pidge starts laughing hysterical and Hunk feels bad for knocking him to the ground but he can’t help but giggle as he offers Lance a hand up. Lance glowers at them both but takes Hunk’s help and is on his feet in no time. 

“We’ll take a small break, but only for water.”

Hunk sighs but it’s better than nothing. The three of all take a drink from their bottles and Hunk looks around where they are. They’re on a hiking trail or something, that took them into the woods. Trees keep getting closer and closer together. He remembers Iverson saying it was to mimic hostile territory, yet nothing has happened yet…

“It’s been quiet, you think they think walking is hostile conditions?”

“No,” Lance says. “Who knows what the plans are… pretty sure we’re being watched. Somehow.”

“They have plenty of ways too,” Pidge says.

Hunk shudders. “That gives me the creeps.”

“Well, kind of their job,” Lance starts tapping his foot. “You two ready to move on?”

“Yeah, just let me get another water bottle…” Hunk opens the duffle bag he’s carrying and starts rummaging. And rummaging. He looks at all the food rations and his stomach growls but he ignores and keeps looking for water. And looking… 

“We’re out of water.”

“What?” Pidge exclaims and Hunk sees he’s emptied out his water bottle as well.

Lance is there and looking through. “Great, just great.”

“What do we do?” Pidge asks. 

Lance looks around and then shrugs. “Hope we find a stream or something…” he grabs Pidge’s water bottle and pours some from his still half full one in it, then does the same for Hunk. “Until then we share, but keep sipping.”

With that Lance starts walking again. 

Hunk sighs and follows, but he keeps a look out for water, keeps his ears peeled. He starts noticing the plants around the forest floor and notes that their are wild mushrooms and berries, idly and starts thinking about pizza and sundaes. 

“I’m hungry.”

“Our first marker is only about twenty more minutes out.”

Pidge groans and Hunk doesn’t blame him. “This sucks.”

~

**Lance**

He let’s out a sigh of relief when the bright red balloons appear ahead of him. He’s hot, he’s run out of water — and he’s trying to figure out how the hell they fix that — and he’s tried of hearing Hunk grousing behind him about being hot and hungry. But he’s even more tired of Pidge’s ‘whatever’ tone every time he tries to get to know the guy.

He quickens his pace until he’s in front of the tree the balloons are tied too. They’re very high up in the tree and he realizes they’re going to have to climb it. Only the branches start further up than they can reach. 

“Of course they do,” he mutters glaring at the tree.

“Our instructions?” Pidge asks, but it sounds more deadpan than question.

“Yep.”

“Can we eat first?” Hunk asks.

Lance sighs. 

“Might as well while Lance figures out how to grow wings,” Pidge laughs.

“Is that a joke?” Lance asks staring at him. 

Pidge nods.

Lance rolls his eyes. 

“Food?” Hunk asks again hopefully. 

“Not yet, I need to get on your shoulders,” Lance says and he turns to see Pidge and Hunk looking at him like he’s crazy.

“What?”

“And from there you’re what?” Pidge asks looking at the tree. “Even on Hunk’s shoulders it’s over a foot away.”

“We have climbing rope.” Lance says.

“And climbing gear,” Pidge says, shouldn’t that work?

“Yeah and we might need it later…”

“Or now.”

“I can use the rope, from Hunk can get it around that branch…” Lance points to the lowest one. “From there I can get to the one with our instructions.”

“Yeah, okay,” Pidge scoffs. 

“You have another idea?” Lance snaps. 

“No.”

“Then shut up.” Lance drops the duffle he’s carrying and pulls out a rope. “Hunk come on…” he pulls Hunk toward the tree and looks around. “Oh, uh, Pidge I need to use you as a stepping stone.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No.”

“No.”

Lance huffs. “YES.”

“I’m not a rock.”

“Well, do you see ANY.”

“No.”

“I gotta get to his shoulders some how and you’re the right height.”

“I have no height.”

‘Exactly, you’re a perfect step stool.”

“How are you gonna balance on his shoulders?” Pidge asks.

“Piece of cake.”

“Really, how?”

Lance groans because the last thing he wants to do is explain how he knows he can do this. But then again… bonding. He groans again. “I was a cheerleader.”

Both Hunk and Pidge give them full attention for the first time since this damn exercise started and he feels his cheeks start to heat at it and slight embarrassment. “I uh.. Was a cheerleader, won some competitions with my team. So uh, just help me get on Hunk’s shoulders, so I can throw the rope over the branch and climb up it.”

Pidge starts laughing hysterically. 

“Laugh it up, I’m using as a step stool,” Lance snaps back. 

“Fine…fine. Now I gotta see this.”

Lance is sure, though he starts to doubt the plan when Hunk can’t stay still enough and he keeps falling onto his ass and Pidge just keeps laughing at the whole thing. He considers trying to the rock climbing tools but it’ll take more time and he just needs to balance. 

Standing up again he grabs Hunk. “Plant you legs, into the ground, hard, be a foundation.”

“Be a foundation.”

“Wider stance, be still, be firm, and yeah a foundation, you’re part of the earth or whatever.”

Pidge peels over on the ground laughing. 

Lance wants to kill him. 

“After this I get food,” Hunk grumbles and he does what Lance tells him do with his stance. Lance fixes him a bit here and there and Hunk grumbles about getting manhandled. 

“Can you take a break in the laughing to help again?”

Pidge gets up snickering and smirking at him but he gets in position so Lance can use him to almost just step onto Hunk’s shoulders. It’s a bit of a hop but it’s good enough. 

His feet hit Hunk’s shoulders and this time Hunk only sways a bit but then maintains his position and Lance finds his balance. “DON’T MOVE.”

“I gotta, I can’t keep this up… I can’t keep this up.”

Lance throws the climbing rope, with a grapple at the end of as hard as he can and holds his breath. It goes right over the branch and seems to catch well between some other branches. He grabs hold of the rope hard and gets his feet on the trunk of the tree just in time because Hunk wobbles away from underneath him.

“Whoa…” Hunk says looking up at Lance.

“I can’t… that happen?” Pidge stares.

“Told you I could do this,” Lance snickers. “Piece of cake.” 

With that he climbs up the tree, using the rope until he reaches the branch, from there it’s simple to climb up a bit more the large overhanging one the balloons holding the rest of their instructions hang. 

He grabs them and then starts down, it goes well until he swings off branch with the rope. It’s catch on the branches falters at the sudden weight and he falls a good foot and half.

“No, no, no, don’t rope, don’t…” the rope doesn’t listen and he flails, his feet scramble agains the trunk, but it doesn’t fall completely. But he feels it’s loose. He looks and carefully moves down more and more, the rope getting more and more loose. 

“You’re gonna fall.” Pidge shouts up which Lance finds really unhelpful.

Lance feels the rope give. “AAAAAAH.”

He lands hard on the ground and feels the wind knock out of him. He moves flat and slowly tries hard to remember how to inhale air into his lungs. He sees to faces peering down at him. 

“You scream like a girl,” Pidge says. 

He glares and says with a slightly choked sound. “I GOT THEM.” He waves the instructions. 

“You okay?” Hunk asks holding out a hand. “You didn’t break anything?”

Lance lets Hunk pull him and he hurts, all over but he can move, he can move. “I’m good. I’m good.”

“I don’t believe that worked,” Pidge mutters.

“It did, get the rope and pack it back up.”

“Fine,” Pidge goes to get. 

Lance starts wiping dirt off of him, trying to catch his breath more. It was a hard fall, he’s going to feel it later. 

“NO. NO. NO.” Hunk is yelling.

“What, what?” Both Lance and Pidge yell and convene over where Hunk is looking through the pack he’s been carrying. 

“The most horrible thing that could happen has happened.”

“What?”

“Our food is gone!”

“What?” Lance dives for the duffle, he looks through everything and it’s all missing. All the food rations they had when they left. “What the hell?”

Pidge is looking all around them. “They must have people watching us, they took it while we were trying to climb the tree.”

“WE?” 

“WE HAVE NO FOOD.” Hunk screams.

Lance stares at him and shakes his head. “We can’t panic.” 

“How can we not panic, there are no more FOOD rations.”

Lance stares at Hunk. “Well… uh….” His heart is thumping. He was already worried about water, he’d hoped they’d just run into a stream and now they have no food. And they need it, he had a plan, now is when they’d be eating. 

“We need to eat… we need to eat…so um…” he stammers. 

“NO FOOD.” Hunk wails again. 

“STOP PANICKING HUNK,” Pidge shouts and gets in front of him. Grabs his arms because he can’t reach Hunk’s shoulders and starts shaking him. “Stop panicking, you know how to scavenge, we had that topic in survival class you scored top grades. You can find us food Hunk!.”

Air returns to Lance’s lungs. 

“Hunk, he’s right. Come on, you got this…” Lance shoots Pidge a thankful look.

Pidge nods that he sees it, but looks away quickly. 

Lance inwardly sighs.

~

**Hunk**

They are both staring at him. Hunk fidgets and looks around. He remembers seeing mushrooms and berries. He thinks they may have been okay to eat but suddenly he isn’t sure at all.

He dives back into the duffle bag. “Maybe I just missed seeing the rations,” he says and tries to push away the nausea rolling in his belly at the fact they are out of food. 

“Hunk?” Lance’s voice sounds unsure and too calm. Fake calm, Hunk looks at him and he knows he must be wide-eyed. 

“There is no food,” he says again for no real reason other than to believe it. Face it? He doesn’t know. “I mean… there are, but I’m not sure…”

“Hunk you aced food scavenging in survival skills,” Pidge says and Hunk feels like he already heard that but he’s not sure because panic makes you unsure of everything. 

“Hunk?” Lance has that worried tone still.

“I…” he feels woozy. He grabs his water bottle and takes a gulp. 

“Hunk.” Lance touches his shoulder. “You can do this, you can find us food. And at the same time we’ll look for a stream or something.”

Hunk looks a the water bottle and he only has one more gulp left. 

“Hunk?” Pidge is looking up at him and Hunk has no idea what his expression means. “You got an A,” he says, as if that means everything.

“In a class.”

“We went to the woods, Hunk, hands on.” Lance claps him on the shoulder. “Come one. Which direction do we go?”

Hunk takes a breath, he’s not ready, he not ready at all but they are. He decides it’s best to backtrack. “I saw some mushrooms and berries on our way here.”

“Okay, then let’s go back the way we came, will be easy to find this place again,” Lance says. “Get all our gear.”

“Mushrooms?” Pidge says making a face.

Hunk shrugs. “It’s what is out here.”

“You can eat the berries,” Lance says.

“If they aren’t poisonous,” Hunk worries.

Lance pushes him into the lead. “You’ll find the ones that won’t kill us.”

“Kill us!” Pidge exclaims.

“Exaggerating, they’d just make us sick cause we won’t over eat them — just in case. But it’d probably lesson our score and besides Hunk knows what he is doing,” Lance squeezes his shoulder again.

Hunk realizes then Lance still has his shoulder, though he’s unsure if it is offering comfort or pushing him further ahead of them. Hunk takes more deep breathes and ignores the sour feeling in his stomach. 

He can do this. They are right he aced this in their survival classes. He aces anything that is about food. They need the nourishment, who knows how much longer they have to walk once they get back on track. 

“Keep an ear out for water too,” Lance says from right behind him.

Hunk sighs. “I haven’t a clue how to find water.”

“Well, there must be something around here somewhere… they wouldn’t make it so we’d fail… it’s just a matter of figuring it out. Maybe I should have a had look around when I was up the tree….” Lance swears under his breath.

Hunk stops seeing a tree with mushrooms growing at its trunk. He bends down and looks at them, pulls one into his hand. He sniffs it, then licks it, and sniffs it again turning it over in his fingers. Then he squishes it. 

“Are you gonna stop playing with it?” Pidge asks. 

“Is it edible?” Lance asks.

“No, it’s a mushroom,” Pidge says.

Hunk closes his eyes and tries to picture his textbook, he opens his eyes and looks at the mushroom. He closes his eyes again and brings up how it should taste. If it is what he thinks it is, he knows it was good. He liked it, earthy and satisfying. He takes a bite, chews, swallows and grins. “Yeah, these are good, really good.” He grabs another one and munches.

“Great,” lance says and starts gathering them.

Pidge is staring at the mushrooms with evident disgust.

“Hunk find some berries for Pidge,” Lance says. “I’m gonna see if I can water,” he pulls out his walkie talkie. “You two turn yours on and stay around this area.”

“But mushrooms,” Hunk says.

“Ew.” Pidge groans.

“Fine the berries,” Lance says with an eye roll at Pidge. “I’ll look for water.”

Hunk nods and tries to remember where he saw them before. Was it before or after the mushrooms — was it even this tree he’d noticed before. He sighs. The forest all looks the same to him, everywhere they go in it. “I hate trees,” he sighs.

“What?” Pidge gives him a weird look.

Hunk gives him one back. “You hate mushrooms.”

“That doesn’t make me a weirdo,” Pidge says.

“Does too.. All food is glorious, Pidge.”

Pidge rolls his eyes. 

“All right, let’s find you some berries. I will not let anyone go hungry ever, not if I have any say on it. Food is most important part of any day,” Hunk starts walking, realizing Lance has disappeared from sight he pulls out his walkie talkie and makes sure it’s on. 

Pidge does he same next to him. 

“You sure you don’t want to try one?” Hunk says and offers one of the handful he grabbed and put into his pocket.

Pidge gives it a long look, then looks at his pocket and shakes his head. “I already don’t like them, pocket lint doesn’t make them more appetizing.”

Hunk laughs. “Fair.”

“Think he’ll find water?”

“He’ll probably stumble onto some,” Hunk says.

“Seriously? He doesn’t know what he’s doing?”

“Neither do we,” Hunk points toward a bush. “Let’s check them out.”

“We’re going to come in last, don’t see what the point is of trying.”

“We can’t just not try, they’ll fail us.”

“So? It’s just one thing.”

“Well, my parents would freak. They want me getting top grades, they weren’t happy with the C’s I’ve been bringing home. Plus…” Hunk waves his hands in a direction — that Lance probably isn’t in — “Lance cares. He wants to do well, he has to do well to stay in the program.”

“He sucks at flying.”

“He’s not that bad,” Hunk says with a shrug. “Simulations just trip him up.”

“We’ve only seen him run simulations.”

“Been with him in his brother’s fighter. Granted there was nothing shooting at us, or any other factors making it harder. But he landed on the air craft carrier and that’s not easy.”

“Hmmph. Still, we’re doomed.”

“Yeah, the teams got a head start on us too.”

“Yeah… uh sorry for that.”

Hunk eyes Pidge. “Yeah, where were you?”

“It’s private.”

Hunk eyes him longer. 

Pidge squirms.

“We are supposed to be a team…”

“You sound like Lance.”

“I know he gets too intense and excited about the whole ‘TEAM BONDING’ thing but he’s not really wrong, you know?”

“It’s private,” Pidge snaps. ‘Can I eat these berries or not?”

Hunk turns to the bush and plucks a big purple berry. He studies it, sniffs, squishes it… which means he can’t eat it because it’s basically just a dead berry between his fingers. He plucks another one and it grins when tastes the way he remembers. 

“Yep.”

“Good,” Pidge starts picking a bunch of them to put in a ziplock bag.

Hunk let’s a relieved sigh and plops down on the ground. “Let’s eat.”

Pidge nods and joins him.

~

**Pidge**

She scowls watching Hunk gorge on mushrooms. Gross. The walkie-talkie she put by her feet crackles with static.

“Guys? Guys? Find food?”

“You get it,” Hunk says mouth full of grossness.

Pidge glares at him and picks it up. “Yes. Find water?”

“No. Meet me by the tree we found the balloons.”

“We’re eating.”

“Well, I haven’t,” Lance’s voice is tinny through the speaker but Pidge hears the annoyance.

“Fine,” Pidge says and stands up. “Time to walk.”

“Again,” Hunk sighs. “I hate this class.”

“I hate this whole program,” Pidge mutters under her breath. 

“Then why are you here?” Hunk asks.

“Why are you?” she tosses back.

“Engines,” Hunk says with a dreamy face. “Best place to get to work with them, tweak them, BUILD them.”

Pidge looks at him and stifles a sigh. Like Lance he wants to be here. Neither are here cause they have to be, because it’s just a stepping stone to the real thing. The real thing she wants. 

Her family. 

“Come on,” Hunk shrugs. “We better hoof it, Lance will be a jerk if we don’t.”

“Be a jerk if we do too.”

“Well…it’s part of his charm.”

“Charm?” Pidge rolls her eyes. 

“Why are you here?” Hunk says and Pidge though she dodged that question. 

“Family,” she says because when it come down to it, she sucks at lying. 

“Made you huh? That’s part of why it matters so much to Lance. You know doing well. His parents like super care.”

“Super care?”

“Tight knit and all that… they don’t mean too but they put pressure on him. Plus his brother graduated top of his class.”

“So?”

“So, he wants to be as good as him.”

Pidge snorts.

“I hope we don’t get zero on this damn thing,” Hunk sighs.

“Why do you care?”

“Cause, I wanna do well in the engine core, I want to be building the next generation of ships that head out to the edge. I mean that’d be great right, to build them I mean.”

“Not fly,” Pidge nods, thinking about Hunk’s flight sickness — though she always put that on Lance. 

“That’s Lance’s thing. You don’t mind it.”

Pidge shrugs. 

“You really don’t care if we get zero points on this do you?”

“Nope.” Pidge says and steps forward. 

“We need to work together,” Hunk says. “I just mean… try to get along with Lance.”

“Why? We don’t need to get along to find the damn finish line on this.”

“But…”

“What?”

“Teamwork. We’re a team and really they count how we deal with things together.”

“Group projects suck,” Pidge huffs.

“This is the Space Explorer program, it’s all about teamwork and working for a broader goal.”

“I have one goal, one goal and I can do it by myself,” Pidge yells feeling her temper spike. 

Hunk blinks at her. They continue walking and Hunk keeps giving her a weird look and then he lets out a sigh. 

“What?” she snaps, the huff air aggravating her.

“You’ll just say it’s none of business like you do anytime Lance asks. Thought, it was just him, you know, cause he’s annoying.”

“Not the only one.”

“No, to you I guess everyone is,” Hunk says and he steps ahead.

Pidge glares at the back of his head. 

They walk in uncomfortable silence and Pidge starts to feel uncomfortable in her skin. She shifts her weight, shoves some berries into her mouth in an attempt to keep her mouth closed. But then it just rises up on it.

“It isn’t your business, it’s no one’s business why I’m here, or what I do in my free time and no I don’t give one stupid bit about TEAMWORK.”

Hunk just looks at her, the he looks away and keeps walking.

Pidge doesn’t feel better.

~

**Lance**

He sits down, his legs straight in front of him and opens the envelope that’d been tied to the balloons. To the side on the grass is his walkie talkie and some berries he picked but isn’t eating until he gets an okay from Hunk. He’s not happy he didn’t find any water, but he’s at a loss of how to even do so — maybe he daydreamed about flying during to many survival classes. Though didn’t seem like Hunk knew either, or that know it all Pidge.

Lance sighs, he and Hunk have a good thing going. They’re friends, great friends, Lance might even call Hunk his best friend. Sure he wasn’t big on explorer or sneaking out of the Academy to go off relax and meet some cute girls or whatever. But he followed Lance anyway when he did it and wasn’t that what it was all about… 

Having the back of your team, your leader. 

Girls. Yeah, girls. Hunk likes girls, even though he’s shy as hell about it. Lance thinks, when they survive this he is totally dragging Hunk into town — Pidge too maybe — and they’re going to have some fun at the arcade and local mini-golf. Meet some local girls. Yeah it’ll be great. Especially if he can get Pidge to go with them, they need to do things as a team — and not not-fun things like this stupid obstacle course or simulations. 

Something fun, something sneaky, something real. Maybe then Pidge might let his damn guard down and let on why the hell he freaks out so often.

That is if they get out of this obstacle course. If he somehow can get to the finish line in a way that keeps his skin in classes, so he is stuck doing un-fun things like dumb simulations. 

He pulls out the piece of paper with instructions on it and stares. He stares. And stares and then sighs and dramatically lets the rest of his body fall to the ground. Are they kidding him with that, seriously, that is ALL it’s going to say. He nearly broke his legs climbing that damn tree for this? For this?

He glares at the paper and wishes he could light it on fire. 

“What does it say?”

Lance jumps as Pidge seems to appear out of nowhere. He stands up and grins seeing that both of them been eating. “Our instructions suck.”

“What are they?” Hunk asks. “You didn’t eat those purple berries did you?”

“Nah, waited to find out which ones I could eat.”

“The redder ones. And I have mushrooms.”

“Yeah, no thanks,” Lance answers shaking his head.

“See,” Pidge says pointedly staring at Hunk as Hunk puts more mushrooms in his mouth. “So, you didn’t find water.”

“Nope.”

“And our instructions suck?”

“Big time.”

“What are they?”

“Walk south east until you find it.”

Hunk and Pidge share a glance.

“That’s it.”

“Walk until we find it… What it.”

“Beats me, but that’s what we are doing.”

‘What about water.”

“We have the mushrooms and berries, and maybe we’ll see signs of water as we go.”

“So we’re just supposed to walk aimlessly around.”

“No, we’re supposed to south east. Hunk I think the compass is your duffle,” lance says.

“This is stupid,” Pidge says.

“Yeah, but we’re stuck doing it so might as well not complain,” Lance says.

“Why shouldn’t I complain this is stupid, this whole thing is stupid and we’re going to lose anyway, so what is the point.”

“We might not lose… we’ve done pretty well so far,” Lance says.

“You climbing a tree well isn’t going to help us not come in last.”

“Pidge what is your problem, sick of you complaining and whining and deciding we can’t win. Maybe we could win, ever think about that?”

Pidge starts laughing. 

“And if we don’t win it’s YOU’RE FAULT. Cause you went off on your own, you took off to do whatever it is you do by yourself and made us have to start late. You’re the damn reason we’ll come in last.”

“Like you two would do any better without me,” Pidge snaps.

Lance inhales deeply. “Well, we wouldn’t be wasting time arguing right now. Hunk and I would have started walking by now.”

“Uh…” Hunk interrupts. “We have a problem.”

Lance turns pinning the glare he was giving Pidge onto Hunk. “What?”

“I don’t have the compass.”

“What? You had the compass,” Lance groans and turns towards the other bag. 

“Now what?”

Lance keeps rifling though stuff in his bag and doesn’t answer. This can’t be happening again, this is stupid, Pidge is right. This is all stupid, they took the compass. He turns and grabs the other bag.

“It won’ be in there. They took it. Like the water.”

Lance spins around, glaring at the landscape around them, hating the people who were hiding practically in plain sight trying to make this task harder and harder. 

“We should just give up.” Pidge sits down.

Hunk follows suit after shrugging at Lance. 

“No. No. We are not giving up. We’re going to do this. We have the sun, right? We can orient without a damn compass.” 

He peers up at the sky and starts trying to figure out where the hell north is… he stares. Brain scrambling and failing to remember how do this, did he ever know how to do this? They do it all the time in books, television, wasn’t this covered in class. 

“Figure it out yet?” Pidge snarks. 

“I will.”

“Sure.”

“How about YOU help then instead of snarking from the peanut gallery.”

“No.”

“Pidge…” Hunk says as he stands up. “Come on, we can’t give up and we have to work together. It’s the assignment and if we were really dealing with an inhospitable environment survival would count on it.”

“But, I have more important things I could be doing,” Pidge mumbles and Lance is certain he wasn’t meant to hear it. He narrows his eyes at him, wanting to scream more and shake him. 

“This isn’t just about YOU. Hunk, me, you, we all are getting judged on this… I have to do this. I have too. So let’s figure out which way to go.”

“I don’t care.”

“So, what you want to expelled, kicked out of the program? Shoved right off base and never allowed back in?”

Pidge opens his mouth but then instantly close again. 

Lance waits for more snark.

Pidge looks up though and then turns in a circle. Then he points. “That way.”

Lance gives Hunk a look, a part of him afraid to trust Pidge’s sudden change in opinion, let alone the direction he chose. “He’s on are team right?”

“Are you?” Lance asks. 

Pidge shrugs. “That’s south east.”

“Ok. Fine. Good. You keep us on track. Let’s all keep an eye out for water. And whatever this IT is.”

Lance starts walking feeling like they’ve been out for years and not just several hours. At this point he doesn’t care how late they cross the finish line, all he cares is that they do…. That he does. He has to get across that finish line.

~

**Hunk**

He’s tired. He’s trying to ration his mushrooms and berries. But he’s hungry and thirsty. But all the do is keep walking. Lance keeps yammering, about the girls in class and if they like him. Talking about how next time he’ll ace the simulations. Hunk just says things when it’s time to say something, he doesn’t say anything to discourage Lance. He knows he’s worried about washing out. Hunk’s worried too.

Though their reasons are different.

Pidge surprised him when he suddenly gave Lance the answer he needed about which direction to go in. Hunk wonders about that guy, he doesn’t seem to care about anything, or about doing well. He argues with Lance’s decisions, all the time, and like now he’s just assuming they’ll fail.

Well, they will. But the assumption is bothersome. And they should try to work together as a better unit. Sure lance’s ego made it hard to take him seriously as a leader. But he tries, Hunk thinks — which is more than he does sometimes. All he really wants to do is work on his engineering projects and enjoy three good meals every day. Maybe a few good snacks.

He wishes he could cook in the school kitchens. But when he asked that one time he was reminded he was in the Space Explorer Program and not a culinary school. And he picked this program for a reason. 

It just wasn’t to explore. He hated exploring. He wipes his brow and goes into his pocket for his bandana and wraps it around his head, tying it in the back. It inhales deeply, he’s panting a bit. He’s tired. 

“I think she likes me, the way she said my name last class… Right Hunk?”

“Yeah, sure,” Hunk says, having no clue who Lance is talking about.

“Lieutenant Hayes does not like you,” Pidge yells.

“Sure she does, always talking with me after simulations, offering help. Totally likes me.”

“Yeah, she’s doing her job and telling you why you keep crashing us and you never listen to her.”

“I listen to her, her voice melodious.”

Hunk laughs.

“What? It is,” Lance sighs. 

Pidge grumbles.

“How long have we been walking?” Hunk asks. “Can we take a break?”

Lance turns back and looks at him and sighs. “Yeah. Pidge we are going in the right direction, right?”

“Yeah, we are.”

“You’re sure.”

“Yes,” Pidge snaps. 

“Okay, okay, just checking.” Lance holds up his hands. He looks west. “Sun’s going to set soon. We’ve been out here most of the day.”

“I want a nap.”

“We can’t nap.”

“Why not… last anyway.”

“Pidge shut up,” Hunk snaps at him. “Stop squabbling with him. Me. Us. We’re a team. We should act like it. And so what if we’re last. Trying counts.”

“Trying still makes us last.”

Lance sighs and Hunk expects him to start yelling about being a team and how they’re going to get through this but he doesn’t. Instead he just collapses onto the ground and holds his head in his hands. 

“Lance?”

“My head hurts.”

Hunk frowns and reaches into his duffle bag, towards the first aid kit. He finds aspirin and brings it over to Lance. “Here.”

“Thanks,” Lance gives him a small smile. “I need water, we all do. Should get more berries and you some more mushrooms too. I mean we need to break from walking but we shouldn’t stop completely. Right?” 

Hunk swallows at the look Lance is giving him. Like he wants Hunk to agree because Lance isn’t sure himself. “We need the food if we don’t have the water.”

“I’ll get them. You two rest.” Pidge doesn’t wait for answer and disappears into the woods.

Hunk watches him vanish and hopes he’ll come back. It worries him he’s worried Pidge might not but he has to admit a part of him doesn’t trust Pidge all that much — because he’s always complaining and never wants to do anything with them. Sure, Lance tries to hard to get him too and is way over zealous with the team bonding thing but Pidge never tries. It hurts Hunk’s feeling sometimes, even if maybe it shouldn’t. 

“He’s gonna come back right?”

Hunk nods his head. “Yeah, yeah… I mean he can’t track us backwards can he… finish line is probably closer than the start line, right?”

“Yeah,” Lance sighs. “I wanna go nap too, Hunk.”

Hunk sits down next to him and lays flat on the ground. “We’ll finish.”

“Last.”

“Yeah, but we’ll finish,” Hunk says. “No matter what Pidge says, he doesn’t get it but I do. We’ll finish, we’ll do that.”

“Why?”

“Cause, you need too and I think I do too.”

“He doesn’t.”

“Maybe he’ll come around someday.”

“Yeah… not counting on it.”

“Just try to get along with him,” Hunk says.

“I am trying.”

“Try harder?” Hunk offers.

Lance groans and rubs his temples. “I rather be out here with Mullet head.”

Hunk laughs. 

“Not really… Pidge isn’t THAT annoying,” Lance laughs too.

~

**Pidge**

She over hears them. She isn’t sure what to think. Which annoys her more than them finding her annoying. What does she care if she irritates them? She’s not here to make friends. She needs to find out what really happened to her family. She wants her father and brother’s names not to be synonymous with error and failure. They were better than that, they didn’t cause whatever made them disappear.

And they weren’t dead. They aren’t. 

She inhales deeply. That’s all that matters, the truth. Not stupid survival exercises, or tests, or stupid simulations. So she shouldn’t care one damn whit that Lance and Hunk find her hard to deal with. They have no right to her secrets, none at all. 

Being in this program is just a means to an end for her. She doesn’t care Lance is afraid of getting washed out, she doesn’t care that Hunk cares about his engineering pathway. She doesn’t care. All she wants to do is get back to the damn base and get back her computer equipment. She hates that it was taken from her, she’s terrified they’ll look at it and see her hacking programs, she that she’s can gain access to practically everything. 

Pidge inhales. She doesn’t care they are annoyed, she doesn’t care. She walks back around and waves the berries she collected. “No mushrooms, not even going touch those spongey gross things.”

“I can live on the berries,” Hunk shrugs.

Lance stands up. “Okay, let’s start walking again.”

Pidge falls in behind the other two, they are chatting away mostly about girls Lance is sure have crushes on him. Hunk nodding along but now and again saying something just on the right side of snarky just to tease his friend. They are friends, Pidge thinks. She wonders if it happened because of Lance always wanting to ‘bond’? It makes her wonder just what happened on all the bonding exercises she just rolled her eyes at or pretended not to hear the invitations too. 

Lance kept trying though, all her rejections ignore. She saw his face sometimes, when she bothered to look up while saying no, and something flash in his eyes really quick and they’d narrow. But he’d shrug and turn, then the next day he’d try again. 

“Pidge what do you think?” 

She comes out of her head and sees him looking back at her. 

“Huh?”

“Lieutenant Hayes? She’s the hottest instructor right?”

“Uh…” Pidge shrugs. “Anyone’s gotta be hotter than Iverson, right?” She doesn’t know, she doesn’t care. Who really cares about these things, besides Lance. He’s such an idiot, she thinks and finds herself wondering why she keeps feeling guilty for blowing him off. 

“Well… yeah,” Lance says.

Hunk starts laughing though. 

“What?”

“Wonders if anyones ever had a crush on Squinty Eye Iverson,” Hunk starts to giggle. “I mean aren’t all teachers must have inspired at least one crush.”

“No way, no one has ever crushed on Iverson.”

“No way,” Pidge agrees.

They all look at each other and burst into hard laughter. It makes them stop walking they’re laughing so hard. Pidge feels a stitch in her side from it all, thinking about the someone finding that jerks face likable in the least. It’s horrifying, she thinks. It is hysterical. She jumps when she eels someone slapping her back and looks up to see Hunk grinning down at her. 

“Iverson,” Hunk giggle increase. “Thanks for the laugh.”

Her eyes widen.

“Yeah, that was hysterical,” Lance is grinning at her. 

“I…” Pidge feels awkward suddenly as her mind wonders if this is her currently in a bonding moment. 

“Hey? Do you hear that?” Lance says suddenly. 

Hunk goes quiet and Pidge tries to focus on her hearing. Then she hears it an odd rush, a familiar sound of… “Running water?”

Lance grins. “Come on!” 

He dashes off too quickly, Pidge has to exert herself to catch up and she hears Hunk panting a step behind her but they catch up to Lance quickly as he stands at the edge of a large stream. There is a bridge over it and on the other side is a gathering of red balloons tied to a white box with block lettering. 

It says It. 

“We found it,” Lance laughs. “It was the water, go figure.” 

Pidge finds herself smiling. Feels like something is actually going right for once today and it does kind of feel good. 

“Thanks for figuring out the right direction” Lance says to her as he opens the box. “Yes, water bottles. Hunk go fill them up.”

“On it,” Hunk says grabbing the bottles and heading down to the water. 

“Compass too,” Lance grins. “Field rations. Though at this point we don’t need those back… I hope. How long do think this thing is anyway?”

Pidge shrugs. “I don’t know. I think it’s all stupid.”

“It is stupid,” Lance agrees but he’s smiling. “Let’s see how annoying these instructions are.” He rips open the envelope and pulls out a piece of paper. “Huh.”

“What they say?”

“Go west until you reach a cliff. Climb down the cliff. Use what you find there to get back to the base.”

“Guess we’re near the end.”

“Yeah…” Lance says frowning at the piece of paper.

“That’s a good thing.”

“Yeah…” Lance mutters again. 

Pidge watches him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing. Hunk, hurry up, I don’t want to stay still long.”

“Hurrying isn’t going to change the fact…”

“We’ll come in last,” Lance finishes and gives her a hard look. “I know, okay. But being slow makes it’s worse.”

She can’t argue with that so she doesn’t.

~

**Hunk**

Hunk is tired. He has been tired. They’ve walked hours and he’s sure it was another hour from the brook to the cliff. But he finds himself wishing they were still walking. He stands nearish the edge of the cliff, he looks down and his heart is hammering in his chest. They’re supposed to climb down it, they have the gear, the harnesses and everything. Those never disappeared at least. But he doesn’t want to do this. He doesn’t want to do this at all.

“I can’t,” he mutters to himself. “I can’t.”

“Hunk it’s not that far down,” Lance says.

Hunk just looks up at his friend and stares at him. Willing to the see the fear and hear his no way I can’t do this anxiety. “Lance.”

Lance stares at him and then looks over at the cliff. He and Pidge have secured everything up, they have the gear ready to go. Just have to get it all on and go over but Hunk can’t stop shaking. He feels sick, his stomach is roiling, it’s too hot. 

He turns away from Lance and finds himself retching.

“Well, that was bound to happen eventually,” Pidge mutters. 

“Hunk, man, come on… This isn’t hard. We did in class.”

“I didn’t,” Hunk reminds him as he wipes at his mouth. Remembering that horrible day in class, at a climbing wall, where he got stuck only half way down. They lowered him down by the harness, and out here they didn’t have that kind of harness. 

“Uh, yeah, okay, so they had to bring you down. But you can do this.”

“No.”

“Hunk, we got this far. It’s almost over. Come on,” Lance sighs.

“Leave me here, since someone to pick me up or something,” Hunk says.

“What? No!” Lance yells. 

“Sure why not,” Pidge says. 

“Why not!” Lance snaps. “We’re a team, we don’t leave people behind.”

“You can’t force him to climb down, that’s not how it works. He’s afraid.”

“Hunk’s always afraid,” Lance snaps. 

Hunk finds himself happy they’re yelling at each other and not looking at him. He is afraid and Lance is right he’s always freaked out about something. He inhales a bit, finding it hard to breathe and drinks some more water. He goes as close as he can stand to the edge and looks down. He can see the bottom but his vision spins and swirls and keeps making it look further and further away. 

“Hunk, Hunk?” Lance is in front of him. “I’m not leaving you behind, but we have to climb down. I won’t let you fall. PIDGE, won’t let you fall either.”

“We can’t force him.”

“Hunk buddy… come on, I know you can do this. We have to do this… it’s about survival right. This was a real situation you couldn’t let the anxiety take over.”

“Stop trying to make him. Getting to the finish line isn’t this important.”

“You don’t even care about getting to the finish line,” Lance yelled. “You don’t care about anything.”

“He’s freaking out and you’re just making it worse.”

“I’m not leaving him behind.”

“Then I guess we’re stuck here. Cause he can’t do it, look at him.”

They felt so far away. Hunk sinks down to the ground. Nice solid ground underneath him, he can trust it beneath him. The solid earth, flat and sturdy. He inhales and wonders if he could have followed his engineering dreams by choosing another path. Space Explorer may wasn’t such a great fit?

“He can do it, HE CAN,” Lance snapped and then he was in Hunk’s face. But not too close. “Hunk, Buddy, my man… You can do this, remember when we broke into the pantry because you really wanted those peppermint cookies?”

Hunk looks at him and nods.

“You thought you couldn’t make it up, through the window and back down. But you did. Twice. This is jus the same thing, it’s just a little higher, but at the end there still can be cookies.”

“Cookies?” Pidge echoes.

“He knows what I mean… you did that and it freaked you out. Incentive, man… come one I know you don’t want to fail this anymore than I do…right?”

Hunk stares at Lance’s face. He remembers them breaking into the pantry. It’d been Hunk’s idea until he saw how high the window they needed to use was on the wall. But Lance talked him into trying anyway and he had done it. 

“Okay,” he heard himself say on a ragged breath. “But…”

“Hey, I’ll go down step by step with you, okay?”

Hunk nods.

“Pidge will too. All of us, together. Right?” Hunk watches Lance pin a glare on Pidge.

Pidge is looking at him though and Hunk meets his eyes. Pidge’s face is a mystery to him but he seems to studying him, his eyes narrowed. “You really okay with this?”

Hunk nods. “We’re a team and Lance is right, this was a real situation quitting wouldn’t be an option. And well this is a real situation and quitting isn’t an option because I signed up to be a Space Explorer…. Right?” he looks at Lance.

“Right. You can do it… so no more thinking, guys. Let’s get this done.”

The three of them go over the side in unison. Hunk with a white knuckle grip, letting out a whimper. But his feet hit the rock surface of the cliff and he pretends it’s solid ground below him instead of to the side of him. 

“Doing great, Hunk, now go again on three…” Lance says.

Hunk closes his eyes and moves when Lance says three. It’s a pattern they repeat and he knows it’s slowing everyone else down. But he starts to relax enough and he looks over to his left and sees Pidge. He meets Hunk’s eyes and Hunk smiles because he feels thankful and as Lance says three again he moves without shutting his eyes.

A few minutes later he is on solid ground, he’s shaking and hurries to gulp down some water and his stomach is queasy. But they made it to the ground, they made it and Hunk knows he couldn’t have done without both Lance and Pidge. 

Lance slaps him on the shoulder and grins at him. “Told you, you could do it.”

“Yeah… that was brave,” Pidge says in an odd tone.

Hunk shakes his head. “Just did what I had to do…” because he doesn’t feel brave, though he does feel a bit accomplished. But he’s wishing hard he never has to do anything similar ever again. 

“Come on, we need walk a bit down this path and we’re supposed to find our ride back to the base,” Lance calls over his shoulder, already on the move. 

“He is sure in a hurry to find out we’re last,” Pidge snorts.

“He has to try…” Hunk says and realizes it’s a lot like how he had to try to go down that cliff face. “I think all of us do.”

~

**Lance**

He sees it first, because as always he’s in the lead with the other two behind. He sees it and his heart starts whooshing in his ears. It’s small, dented and doesn’t look at all like it could fly. And from where he stands he sees no room to fly it…

He swallows and keeps walking toward the plane. Telling himself there will be a runway in front of it. A decent one. This is their jackpot, it’s not the finish line but it’s the jackpot. It has to be, so there won’t be too many more obstacles. He won’t have to worry about crashing the damn thing before he gets it in air.

He gets to the nose of the plane and that thought is instantly quashed. Lance swallows heavily again as he takes in the short amount space he has to get the plane in the air. 

To fly it. 

“It’s dented to hell, at least you can’t add to much more,” Hunk jokes from behind him. 

“Like I’d give this poor girl anymore dents,” He laughs back. “You two see if it will fly.” 

“Sure doesn’t look like it’ll turn on,” Pidge grumble as he climbs in. 

“I’ll look around the outside,” Lance says.

Hunk nods and goes inside with Pidge.

Lance goes to check the wheels. It’s an old plane, really old plane. Needs a good take off and a good landing. No floating it down with extra thrusters and things. It’s practically a relic and it’s not at all like anything he’s ever flown before. 

He touches the side though and finds himself thinking it’s beautiful. It’s like the planes he had has a kid, the ones he read about, the ones he used to stare at every museum trip. He’s read manuals, he’s read history, he’s read fiction. But he’s never been near one like this…

“I get to fly you?” he thinks surprised. “What if…”

He hears the engine start to turn and steps back waiting for it to roar fully to life but it sputters to a stop. It sputters to a stop and he hates himself for being relieved he has more time. For the first time since he was dragged out of bed before the sunrise he’s not in any hurry. 

He moves and climbs into the body of the plane. “What’s the damage?”

“Well they put in updated communications, CPU and GPS. Other wise though you’ll have to use manual controls and go by altimeter… That is if I can even get the new equipment going. I don’t think it was installed right,” Pidge says quickly. “People are so stupid, I think they think this was right…” he pulls out a plug. 

“Hunk?” Lance turns from Pidge trying not to think about altimeters. 

“Just needs some engine grease, a few screws tightened, somethings just weren’t plugged in right. But I seem to have all the tools and parts I need. Just gonna take some time… I’ll try go as fast as I can.”

“No, no… do it right, don’t worry. We want to get up in the air.”

“And yeah, we gotta give you a chance to crash it,” Pidge laughs. 

“Like I’d crash it,” Lance rolls his eyes but he’s thinking about his crash rate in simulations and trying not to break out into a sweat. “Need help? One of you?” he offers.

“Yeah, I need you to hold something so I don’t strip the wire…” Hunk calls him over. 

Lance ends up going back and forth between Pidge and Hunk, holding things, passing things, getting engine grease sprayed in his face. He finds himself paying attention though because it’s a plane and part of him feels like he should at least know some basic maintenance. 

He starts asking questions. Hunk gives him an odd look at the first one, but then just starts answering as if they were talking about girls or lunch, or movies. The subjects they usually talk about and about nothing. This is just about engines and Lance starts to think he should pay more attention in engineering classes. 

“Okay, why does this need to go out and not in?” Lance asks Pidge, as he helps him keep track of about six different wires for the CPU. 

“Just keep them straight,” Pidge says.

“I want to know why.”

“Why?”

“Cause why not? Cause I might end up alone someday in a plane I can’t fly without knowing. Because we’re going to be in last place I could at least learn something….” Lance trails off with a large sigh. 

“Oh,” Pidge says before opening his mouth and explaining what he is doing with extreme detail and using words Lance didn’t know existed. So he ends up just bobbing his head up and down and pretending to have a clue. Because Pidge is actually trying and it kind of blows Lance’s mind. 

Before he knows it though Hunk’s starting the engine and it purrs like a kitten. And Pidge has turned on the reinstalled computer system and it beeps and whirs in away that makes him smile. 

“We got this bucket of bolts ready to fly… let’s get back to base.” Pidge grins. 

“Just let me get buckled in,” Hunk hurries to a seat and pulls the restraints over him.

Lance freezes. He just stays where he is, standing by the pilot’s seat but no moving. He stares out the window and at the short runway — that isn’t at all a runway, more like a graveled narrowed road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees. 

“Lance? Lance,” Hunk yells. 

“Uh, what?” Lance says, trying to play it cool.

“You need to fly us back to the base,” Pidge says his tone careful. 

“You’ve been staring out the window for a least three minutes, Dude,” Hunk adds.

“I have,” Lance winces.

“Why?” Hunk asks. 

“Uh…”

“Your afraid to fly it?”

“No. No, no… of course not.”

“Then get in the seat and fly,” Pidge snaps. “You’ve been pushing us to hurry and hurry and now that we know we’re heading back to the base you’re just standing there.”

“Lance I want to go home, I want real food, I want my bed,” Hunk says. “We got here, like you said we would. Just one more thing.”

“Uh huh…” Lance wipes his palms on his pants. He feels hot and sweaty. “I… um.”

“You are afraid,” Pidge says again. 

“Lance?”

“I… Never flown one of these before and that…” he points out the window. “Is JUST enough room. Not enough room, not more than enough room. JUST ENOUGH room. Barely any room for any error… we either get enough height or fly into those huge pine trees.”

He grabs his water bottle and drinks some of the liquid, wishing it was colder and he tries to figure out a way to calm down. Then he realizes how silent it is around him and he looks for the first time since the panic took hold. He sees Pidge looking between him and the gravel road. He sees Hunk looking at him and the controls. 

“Great, great, neither of you think I can do it either…” 

“What? No,” Hunk says and he undoes his restraints. “Of course you can… so it’s new. But you’ve flown Tony’s fighter class. It’s got all those gadgets right…” Hunk points to the manual controls and the different gauges on the panel.

“Kinda, sort of, it’s a lot more automated, except for flight.”

“Then you can do it… you trapped on the battle cruiser right?”

“Tony was there…” Lance mutters. 

“You can do it… He can do it… Right Pidge.”

Lance pinned his eyes on Pidge and waited for it. The condemnation. 

“I didn’t think you could climb that tree,” Pidge says. 

“And I didn’t think Hunk could get down the cliff. I really didn’t.”

“Thanks,” Lance and Hunk deadpan. 

“But you did climb it, you said you could and you did it. And Hunk did make it down and it took forever but he did it.”

“You two were helping me,” Hunk says. 

“Right.. We, uh… we worked together.”

“You guys can’t help me fly,” Lance sighs. 

“But we can believe you can do it,” Pidge says. 

“But you…”

“WE DO,” both Hunk and Pidge say. They then look at each other and Lance watches them and they both nod and smile. Turning back to him Pidge’s grin widens. 

“I believe you can be great.”

Lance stares at them. “You really think… but in simulations..”

“But you fly better out of them, this is real…”

“It is real,” his heart is hammering even more. “I…”

“I didn’t think we could do this course and we have, we can’t give up now,” Pidge says. “And so what if we’re last, we all know we worked our asses off. And a lot of that was YOU, Lance.”

Lance stares at Pidge and feels like he’s seeing him for the first time. All the fights today, all the shouting, all the pushing through despite thinking Pidge didn’t give a damn at all. 

“You care about that now? That we have to try? After all you’ve been snarking today.”

Pidge nods. “I… I don’t care like you do, I don’t…but. We got this far, can’t quit now.”

Lance nods.

“You can do it, Dude,” Hunk says and slaps Lance’s back. 

Lance grins at him and then at Pidge.

“Yeah, okay.” He sits down in the pilot seat. “Strap in.”

He waits for them both to get strapped into their seats before he starts up the airplane again. He switches everything he needs on, on and checks the GPS and automated flight path from the computers Pidge spent an hour re-installing. The engine sounds good as knew and he grins. 

“Hunk she’s purring great and computer isn’t glitchy at all… great job.”

“Are you procrastinating?” Hunk asks.

“He is,” Pidge laughs.

“Okay…. Hold on.” He releases the break and presses his foot down on a lever and the plane starts to roll forward, he speeds it up, watching the gauges, flipping things and pulling up on the yoke when — he prays — is supposed too and they start to leave the ground and float up into the air. 

He closes his eyes. 

The landing gear does hit the tree line but it’s not an disaster, just as small hiccup that Lance feels but when he hits the button the wheels roll into the plane for the flight. He pulls them higher into the air and then evens the plane out. 

Then he opens his eyes. 

Pidge smirks at him and Lance knows he saw and he’s grateful for his silence. 

“Okay,” Lance checks everything. “Five minutes whole minutes for me to try not panic about the landing.”

“Five minutes?”

“Short flight, long walk,” Lance laughs. 

“I’m never walking again,” Hunk laughs.

“Wonder how late we are?” Pidge asks.

“Late,” Lance laughs, not feeling the spike of irritation he did every other time Pidge sniped about it. Maybe this time because it’s not a snipe but a reasonable question. 

“There it is, Not so home sweet home,” Pidge adds pointing out the window. 

“Dinner and bed,” Hunk says. “It’s so close.”

Lance swallows and grips the controls. 

“You can do it,” Pidge says again in a tone that says he believes it.

Lance nodded. “I’m the Tailor…”

“What?” Hunk asks.

“Nothing… I got this… I got this…” he begins his descent and realizes late he’s going to fast but he quickly moves to compensate. The landing is bumpy as hell and he overshoots where he’s supposed to have stopped by eight feet but he doesn’t crash into anything, or anyone. 

“Huh?” Lance breaths out. 

“Yes, yes, it’s over,” Pidge cries out cheerfully and slaps his shoulder. 

Hunk slaps his shoulder too. “See you did it, Lance.”

“Yeah, yeah… we all did.” Lance nods. “Let get out of here.”

Pidge opens the door and the three of them pour out of the plane and find themselves looking into the shocked faces of only six of their fellow classmates, Lieutenant Hayes and Iverson.

“No way,” Harding, Lance’s roommate says. “No, damn way.”

“What?” Lance asks.

“You three just won third place.”

Lance blinks and looks at Pidge and Hunk.

Pidge steps forward. “Third place? As in coming in third?”

“No way,” Harding says again staring open mouthed at Lance. 

Lance looks back to Iverson. “Third place?”

“Yeah, Kid… you three are third. Congratulations.”

Lance feels like he just won first place, especially as he looks at Harding who is glaring, looking confused and pissed off. He turns to Hunk and Pidge and grins. Suddenly Hunk is squishing both him and Pidge in his arms. 

“I can’t…” Pidge starts and Lance meets his eyes. Pidge expression shifts and he looks at the others, at Harding and then Iverson who looks almost as baffled as Harding. “No… We showed them not to under estimate us, or anyone.”

Lance nods. “We make a great team.”

“Yeah, we do!” Hunk shouts 

“Yeah, huh, we do.” Pidge smiles.


End file.
